Cooling bed



Feb, 26 9 192%., 3,484,665 w. B. NELSON COOLING BED Filed April 15,1.922 2 Shets-Sheet 1 HAM-65 Feb. 26 1924.,

W. B. NELSON COOLING BED Filed April 15. 1922 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 F 7 Juan,

Patented Feb. 26, 1924.

t eater mac WILLIAM B. NELSON, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A SSIGNO'R TOINTERSTATE IRON AND STEEL COMPANY, OF OHIGAGO, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATIONOF ILLINOIS.

COOLING BED.

Application filed April 15, 1922. Serial No. 553,258.

NELSON, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in thecounty of Cook, State of Illinois, having invented certain new anduseful Improvements in Cooling Beds, do hereby declare that thefollowing is a full, clear, and exact description of the same- Myinvention relates to cooling'bedsus'ed in handling hot metal bars asthey are delivered from the reducing-'rollsof a rolling mill, andconsists in the novel and useful constructions herein described and 1then pointed out in the appended claims.

In the accompanying drawings, which illustrate a practical embodimentofmy invention and in which the same reference numerals indicate similar{parts in thedifferent views, Fig. 1 is a top plan View of alongitudinal portion of a cooling bed equipped with my invention, partsbeing broken away; Fig. 2 is a detail vertical sectional view on theline 2-2 in Fig, 1 withthe parts in position when" pack's ofibarsl'are1n place; Fig. 3 is a similar,viewshowingthe parts in positlon when thepacks arebeing advanced on the rack-section, and Figs. '4,

5 and 6 are detail sectional views on the cally accumulating them inpacks on the cooling bed itself; in both cases they remained in packformation until the critical temperature for annealing to the requlreddegree of hardness was passed. The first or so-called hand-coolingpractice was unreliable and unsatisfactory to a very general extent, andit was uniformly necessary to subsequently anneal at least the outerbars of the packs and frequently many of the inner ones, which involveda large outlayof time and money, the cost being at times prohibitive; infact some spring steel is of such analysis that after hand-cooling itwould not pass the required Brinell test which is the standardspecification of vehicle spring makers unless it was later annealed, Theother practice of mechanically packing the bars in the cooling bed andanhealing them on the bed in process between the reducing-mill andshears was a distinct advance as it did away with the manual labor ofpacking them by hand, but the barsup'porting surfaces of the beds wereso large that they drew the heat from the contacting portions of thebars faster than the latter could absorb heat from the pack; the bottombars and edges of the other barsin the pack were cooled so fast by thecolder metal of the bed drawing heat from their contacting portionsfaster than they could absorb heat from the pack that the heat of thepack was not sufiicient to evenly anneal them and the contactingportions of the bars of the acks did not anneal to the same degree ofard ness as the rest of the bar. The critical temperature for properlyannealing spring bars in a cooling bed is usually reached by the timethe bar is ejected from the third pocket in the 'rack-sectlon of thebed, and 1n the early apparatus the chilled portions of the bars werebelow this temperature at this point so that the bars when finished werenot uniform and did not meet the Brinell test. This chilling eflect ofthe bed itself was obviated by providing the supporting surfaces of thebed with staggered ribs, as shown for example in the co-pendingapplication of George M. Smith, filed October 22, 1921, Serial Number509,682, or with insulating pads as shown for example in my co-pendingapplication filed October 22, 1921, Serial Number 509,648.

But in all cooling beds as heretofore constructed, so far as I am aware,the bars while packed on the rack-section were exposed to air draftspassing through the racks between their webs and between the webs ofadjacent racks, as well as to the cooling effect of the air above therack-section, so that the outer bars which are exposed broadside wereair-chilled too fast and cooled below the temperature of the others andthe heat from the center bars of the pack was not suflicient to evenlyanneal them, and also it fre uently occurred that other bars in the pacwere cooled so fast by the colder metal of the outer bars drawing heatfrom them pockets of the rack-section of the bed are protected againstair-chilling, and which obviate the air-chillingof the bais as a factorin annealing them in the bed in the process between the rolling-mill andshears- Referring to the accompanying drawings which show, my inventionthe reference letter A designates a long trough or run-out tableprovided with a series of feed-rolls a.

which project through-the openings into the trough and convey the metalbar as it is delivered from the reducing-rolls. In practice the troughis usually long enough to accommodate a 300 foot bar, and the coolingbed, of which only a section is shown, is correspondingly extended.

The skid-section B of the bed includes a series of rigid inclinedskid-beams B having staggered vertical ribs 1) upon which the bars a:are delivered from the trough. Between the beams B are journaled in thebed a series of rocking-shafts C parallel with the beams and having armsC, C and (1 extending therefrom; the arms C on the ends of the shaftsare arranged to pass through open-end slots a in the trough A so thatupon oscillation of the shafts they will transfer the bar out of thetrough to the bed, and the other arms are arranged in staggered relationon opposite sides of each shaft and extend radially to projectalternately into vertical position to form escapement stops or dogsabove the skids as the shafts are oscillated, the corresponding dogs ofthe shafts beingarranged in a straight row extending longitudinally ofthe bed so that the hot metal bars as will be preserved in straightlines. Suitable mechanism which is well-known and forms no part of mypresent invention, and so need not be here shown and' described,actuates the rockingshafts so that they are simultaneously rocked backand forth to allow the bars lying 'on the skids to move by gravitysuccessively down them from one row of dogs to the next lower rowuntilthey pass one by one from the last row upon the packingdevice B atthe lower end of the skid-section B by which they are delivered to thefirst pocket of the horizontal section of the cooling bed.

The rack-section of the cooling bed is composed of a series of parallelhorizontal racks D arranged respectively in line with the skid-beams asshownin Fig. 1. Each rack unit is composed of a flat base cl and spacedvertical webs d provided with a series of troughs or pockets D which areV- sha ed in cross-section, the corresponding poc ets of the racks beingarranged in straight lines. Suitable mechanism of wellknownconstruction, designated generally at D will be employed to lift andmove the bars from each pocket and deposit them in the next one anddischarge them upon the assembly-table (not shown), and the packingdevice B will be formed of jointed arms and the lower arms will beactuated from below as now well-understood to deliver the bars from theskid-section of the bed to the first row of pockets in the rack-sectionso that they will be disposed therein in a pack as shown at m;mechanisms for both these purposes are now well-known and need not behere described in detail, the transfer device D being located andoperated between the spaced racks, and the packing device at the frontend of each rack. The racks are provided with supports (5 by which theyare mounted on the frame of the bed.

The-initial or leading row of POZkEtS in the rack-section is 'providedwith a substantially continuous front closure; in the form shown eachrack is provided with a baflieplate (,l at its front end which extendsacross the opening between its opposite pair of webs and projectslaterally at each side beyond the webs, as clearly shown in F ig. 1where the parts are broken away; the baffleplates preferably aredisposed in the inclined plane of the leading edge of the front pocket,and their adjacent edges are spaced apart sufiiciently to provideclearance for the transfer mechanism D while they are notched intheirupper edges between the webs as shown at to provide clearance for thepacking mechanism B In practice each rack is preferably provided with asupplemental baflie-plate d disposed in the inclined plane of the rearedge of the front pocket and extending laterally at each side to thesame extent as the front baffle-plate d and forming therewith aV-shaped'crotch or trough the adjacent troughs being aligned lengthwiseand forming a substantially continuous open-top trough or pocket havingclosed bottom and sides. The second and third rows of pockets in thewebs are provided with angular pads (l and the pads and baffle-platesare provided with vertical transverse ribs 03 arranged in staggeredrelation. The front baflie-plate d of each rack closes the passagebetween its webs, and as the ends of the adjoining bafiie-plates arepractically contiguous they also effectually close the passages betweenthe webs of ad acent racks against the passage of any considerablevolume or draft of air. In practice it is preferable to use the rearbaflleplates d as they close therear of the initial row of pockets andprevent air chilling of the successive bars as the front pack is builtup in it; the first bars deposited in the front pack obviously areexposed to the air under different conditions than the later ones asmenses they temporarily are not subject to the heating action of othersor of the completed pack, and so it is desirable to use the rearbafile-plates to prevent them from COOllIlg too fast. If desired thebase plates at may be extended laterally to the same extent as thebafiieplates along the successive rows of pockets which with the frontrow constitute the critical portion of the rack-section thus formin afloor in the rear of the opentoptrough t at is continuous except for thenarrow slots between the adjacent bases through which the transfermechanism D operates. It will be apparent from Fig. 1 that this lattermechanism, which in pack annealing operates only periodically upon thecompletion of a pack in the front pocket may practically fill the slotsbetween the adjacent racks when in its normal position, and in any eventthe slots or openlngs are not of sufiicient size to allow enough air topass to affect the annealing of the bars as the area or extent of themetal exposed to each of them is so small and restricted that it absorbsenough heat from the unchilled portions of the pack to prevent it fromcooling faster than the pack itself. The front end of each base isnotched as at d to provide clearance for the means (not shown) thatoperates the packing device.

The critical portion of the rack-section, usually comprising the firstthree or four rows of pockets, is provided with a cover E, which issuspended above the racks by any suitable means that permits it tonormally rest on the tops of the pockets as in Fig. 2 and move upwardlyas in Fig, 3 when the transfer device moves the pack out of one pocketinto the next pocket and then return to its normal position. In the formshown the cover is suspended by a series of resilient arms E fastened atone end to the cover and at the other end to the trough A. The cover isprovided at its front edge with an upwardly and outwardly flared lip eso that the bars will readily and easily pass under it. The coverpreferably is formed by a sectional flexible metallic plate and is longenough to extend the full length of the racksection of the bed; it ma bewide enough to extend over either all- 0 the critical pockets as shownin Fig. 4 or only the second and third of these pockets as shown in Fig.2; in the former case its front side will be momentarily lifted ortilted by the movable packing arms sufiicientl to allow the successivebars to pass un er it, its flared lip guiding the bars to position andpermitting them to cam its front edge upwardl from the arms to permittheir passage, an in the latter case its front edge will stand back ofthe position of the top bar of the ack, and its curved lip will wipeover this ar without disturbing it as the ack is transferred to thesecond pocket. 11 either case the cover is lifted by the transfermechanism when a pack is moved from one pocket to the next, as clearlyshown in Fig. 8, and when this transfer is completed it returns to itsnormal position on top of the racks.

When the bars are accumulated in packs on the rack-section the frontbaffle-plates d close the passages between the webs so that no drafts ofair can flow through them and chill the bars, and with the rearbaffle-plates d form a trough that is practically closed at its bottomand sides to protect the bars from cooling too fast. The cover confinesthe heat in the pack and prevents it from rising and radiating into theoutside air, and also prevents this cooler air from chilling the bars,and when the rack-bases are extended laterally to the same extent as thebaflie plates the floor thus formed forms a practically closed chamberin conjunction with the cover.

I claim:

1. In a device of the class described, a

rack having a series of pockets extending along its length, and a plateclosing the front of the initial pocket.

2. In a device of the class described, a rack having a series of pocketsextending along its length, plates closing the front and rear of theinitial pocket and constructed to form an open-top trough, and a coverfor a plurality of the pockets.

3. In a device of the class described, a rack-section constructed withvertical spaced webs having a series of pockets, extending along theirlength, platesclosing-the front of the initial ocket between the webs, acover above a p urality of the pockets of the section, and resilientmeans constructed to suspend the cover in its normal position.

4. In a device of the class described, a rack-section composed of aseries of racks constructed with vertical spaced webs having a series ofpockets, plates on the racks closing the front and rear of the initialpocket therein and extending laterally beyond the webs to close thepassages between the webs of adjacentracks, a cover above a plurality ofthe pockets of the section, and spring-arms constructed to suspend thecover in its normal osition.

5. In a device or the class described, a rack-section composed of aseries of racks constructed with flat bases and vertical spaced websinside the margins of the bases and having a series of pockets, plateson the racks closing the front of the initial pocket therein andextending laterally be-.

yond the webs to close the passages between the webs of adjacent racks,a cover extending lengthwise of the section and covering a plurality ofthe pockets of each rack, and supports constructed to movably suspendthe cover in its normal position.

6. In a device of the class described, a

its

rack-section composedof a' series of racks constructed withfifiat bas esand vertical spaced webs inside the margins ofthe bases and having aseries of-' pocke ts, platesfon the. racks constructed t'o'iform an'open-top trough closing the front and rearjof the initial' pockettherein andextending' across" the passages between thewebs. ofadjacentracks,

7. In a device of the class described, a rack-section composed of aseries of racks constructed with vertical spaced webs having a series ofpockets, plates on the racks closing the passages between the webs, aflexible plate covering a plurality of the pockets of each rack andhaving its end flared upwardly, and supports constructed to movablysuspend the latter plate in its normal position.

In testimony whereof -I aflix my sig nature;

WILLIAM B. NELSON.

